K-12 Education

Next year, Pennsylvania will spend $2.4 billion on business tax breaks. That amount has tripled over the last 10 years and does not count the hundreds of millions of dollars lost annually to corporate tax loopholes.

The Governor's budget once again makes deep cuts to higher education while leaving intact $840 million in cuts made to the commonwealth's schools last year, which had a disproportionate impact on poorer school districts.

Large financial institutions, including many that received financial bailouts through the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), will continue to make hundreds of millions of dollars off interest rate swaps negotiated with the City and School District of Philadelphia, according to a new report from the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center (PBPC).

Public schools and higher education are particularly hard hit in the state budget proposed by Governor Tom Corbett for the 2011-12 Fiscal Year. Total education funding, at $9.8 billion, sustains a cut of more $1.2 billion.

Coming out of the recession, Pennsylvania must take a forward-looking approach to the state budget that focuses on creating jobs and ensuring our long-term economic success, according to a report released today.